S U M M A R YThis paper focuses on the reprocessing of seismic reflection profiles, aeromagnetic and seismicity data, to locate and characterize the Ota-Vila Franca de Xira-Lisbon-Sesimbra fault zone. The studied structure is sited in the Lower Tagus Valley, an area with over 2 million inhabitants, that has experienced historical earthquakes causing many casualties, serious damage and economical losses (e.g. 1531 January 26 and 1909 April 23 earthquakes), whose tectonic sources are mostly unknown. The fault zone trends NNE-SSW to N-S, is located near the eastern border of the Mesozoic Lusitanian Basin and partially delimits the Lower Tagus Cenozoic Basin at the west, mostly hidden under the Cenozoic sedimentary fill. According to the data presented here, the normal structures that compose the fault zone were reactivated in Cenozoic times, with positive inversion and the development of splays towards the east. The fault zone shows three distinct segments with different behaviour, in conformity with their various orientations relative to the NW-SE maximum compressive stress. The northern segment splays into a series of NNE-SSW oriented, east verging, imbricate thrusts, which merge to the west into a major reverse fault that resulted from the tectonic inversion of the former normal fault bordering the Mesozoic Lusitanian Basin in this area-the well known Ota (or Pragança) fault. The central segment corresponds to the approximately 20 km long outcropping Vila Franca de Xira fault, which suffered a maximum degree of inversion. The southern segment extends for ∼45 km, crossing Lisbon and the Setúbal Península at depth until approximately Sesimbra (probably continuing offshore), with an N-S trend and distinct geometry. South of Vila Franca de Xira, there is evidence for a WSW-ENE fault located at depth, producing a righ-lateral stepover on the major structure and splitting the central from the southern segment. We hypothesize that this obliquely trending fault is a possible source of the 1909 Benavente earthquake.

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oIn this paper we present a new basement (defined here as Paleozoic, Precambrian and Mesozoic igneous rocks) map of the Lower Tagus Valley area. This map is a contribution to the understanding of the structural evolution of the top of the basement in the Lower Tagus Valley area during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras. The map was produced using aeromagnetic, well, seismic reflection and geological outcrop data. It shows unprecedented details of the geometry of the basement rock's surface with higher resolution and covers a larger area than the previous basement map of the study area. In spite of an estimated average error of 200 m in depth and an horizontal resolution of 4 km, our map not only reproduces with accuracy several well known basement structures but it also emphasizes previously unknown features. Major basement faults were inferred from large depth variations at the top of the basement, magnetic 2D Euler deconvolution and horizontal gradient analysis and are compatible with surface geological structures, well data and hydrogeological information. Implications to the geodynamic evolution of the SW European Variscides and consequences to Meso-Cenozoic tectonics are discussed. The correlation of the basement structures with instrumental seismicity is carried out and their neotectonic activity is discussed on the basis of existing geological outcrop data.

This paper focuses on the interpretation of seismic reflection, gravimetric, topographic, deep seismic refraction and seismicity data to study the recently proposed Ota-Vila Franca de Xira-Lisbon-Sesimbra (OVLS) fault zone and the lower Tagus Cenozoic basin (LTCB). The studied structure is located in the lower Tagus valley (LTV), an area with over 2 million inhabitants that has experienced historical earthquakes which caused significant damage and economical losses (1344, 1531 and 1909 earthquakes) and whose tectonic sources are thought to be local but mostly remain unknown. This study, which is intended as a contribution to improve the seismic hazard of the area and the neotectonics of the region, shows that the above-proposed fault zone is probably a large crustal thrust fault that constitutes the western limit of the LTCB. Gravimetric, deep refraction and seismic reflection data suggest that the LTCB is a foreland basin, as suggested previously by some authors, and that the OVLS northern and central sectors act as the major thrusts. The southern sector fault has been dominated by strike-slip kinematics due to a different orientation to the stress field. Indeed, geological outcrop and seismic reflection data interpretation suggests that, based on fault geometry and type of deformation at depth, the structure is composed of three major segments. These data suggest that these segments have different kinematics in agreement with their orientation to the regional stress field. The OVLS apparently controls the distribution of the seismicity in the area. Geological and geophysical information previously gathered also points that the central segment is active into the Quaternary. The segment lengths vary between 20 and 45 km. Since faults usually rupture only by segments, maximum expectable earthquake magnitudes and other parameters have been calculated for the three sectors of the OVLS fault zone using empirical relationships between earthquake statistics and geological parameters available from the literature. Calculated slip rates are compatible with previous estimates for the area (0.33 mm yr-1

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